Living on a farm is all about seasons especially when you want to make the most of the fertile soils of the North West Coast of Tasmania. This blog is a diary of growing, harvesting and preserving the produce of those soils just as I have been doing for the past 30 years. Come with me on my journey through the seasons. Maybe you will be inspired to grow and preserve your own too.

Monday, November 24, 2014

The elderflowers have been in flower for the past few weeks so I have been out gathering. My source of flowers involves scrambling along a railway line and hoping there are no snakes in the long grass near the trees. This year on my first foraging jaunt about a month ago, I gathered not only some flowers to make sparkling elder and elder syrup but some cuttings to propagate as well. My cuttings are now little plants in pots so now I need to decide where to plant them so one day in the future I will have my own trees from which to gather the flowers.

It is so easy to make the sparkling elder, I think I might gather a few more flowers tomorrow to make just one more batch for summer. I might try some experimenting with other flavour sparkling fruit drinks this summer if I have fruit in excess. I have read that red rose petals can also be used which might be worth trying.

The sparkling drink can be stored in the freezer in PET bottles and still retain its fizz but rather than freezing the elder syrup in order to preserve it, this year I have put some in Fowlers preserving jars. It should last for months if not years this way and a useful idea if you are running out of room in the freezer.

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About Me

I live on a dairy farm in Flowerdale on the North West coast of Tasmania where I have a large vegetable and fruit garden. For many years I have been harvesting and preserving the produce of my garden to enjoy all year round. I'm always looking for new ideas from around the world to experiment with, as well as the tried and true standards.